We all just dived right into this as a living ongoing project, 24/7. After doing this for a year or two, one day Madlib said he'd like to work with Doom. Egon knew a guy who knew who knew Doom, and next thing you knew Doom was out too, "Doing bong hits on the roof out in the West Coast," like he says in the first track he wrote for the album. I really didn't realize what an idyllic time it was until things got more complicated a few years later.

Jeff Jank: The most important part of their process is simply that Doom understood Madlib right off the bat. He understood where he was coming from with the music, how it connected with the records they listened to from the '60s-'90s, and Madlib's inclination to worked on his own in privacy. Doom was all for it.

I often picked up Doom from a hotel each day. We'd hit a liquor store around 10am. He'd write on the back porch, Madlib doing his thing downstairs in the bomb shelter. I don't know how to say this influenced the artwork other than I was there. Most of the time I was just concerned with the album getting finished. I also had this side hustle with Doom where we did a trade: I made him a painting in exchange for him placing a few challenging key words in the lyrics. Those words shall remain secret, but I'm happy to say he gave a shout out a couple of my cartoon characters Hookie & Baba in the lounge track "Bistro."

Somewhere along the way, the first demo Doom and Madlib did got leaked on the web, and it really soured the process for them. Both guys just figured they were done with it, on to the next thing. The process of getting them back to work took most of 2003, and the very last parts of the album were much harder than everything else. Right towards the end just about everyone was frustrated, and I ended up being the last guy in the studio doing a some minor edit here and there, which I'd never done before at Stones Throw. I drove home thinking, this is great music, great beat-maker, great emcee, and I got a shout out for my cartoon characters, life is pretty good.

Despite this, I was truly surprised at the love the album got. To this day I see new people discovering and being inspired by this record and I'm really glad I was a part of it. (It even makes the multi-year process of the mythical second album somewhat bearable.)

Being visually and graphically oriented himself did Doom have his own ideas of how he wanted the art to be executed?

Jeff Jank: Although I knew Doom from KMD days, I didn't know until a little later that Doom had drawn the cover of Black Bastards or had anything to do with visual arts. We talked more about that stuff later, but at the time all I knew was that he was going to be absolutely dead set against using his "face" on the cover. When he came over to check it out one day, his guy Big Ben Klingon just happened to be with him. I lucked out. Doom groaned when he saw a the picture, but Ben instantly got it. He was howling, "Look at this guy, what's his story?! This is perfect!" We have Ben to thank for the cover.

Nice story, thanks Jeff! For me, this record cover is a top 5 of all times!

http://google.com the mug shooter

You may be able to uncover the story behind the mask and artwork but I doubt you could uncover what Jeff Janks face looks like anywhere on the web

werd

I can stare for days at that cover.

Marc

That album cover has been my avatar for various things for years, always making people creeped out or wonder what the deal is behind it. Love vinyl jacket covers that double as just great artwork, this being one of them for sure. Latest favorite cover is the textured black on black Shabazz Palaces 'Black Up' cover

Wow weird I was l listening to that Crimson King album when I read this

Hussa

I remember when that album got accidentally released about 6 weeks early here in southern Alberta, Canada and how stoked I was when I saw it. I felt so exclusive! I posted about it on the Stones Throw msg boards. Then the next day I got an email from Jeff Jank, telling me how the distributor EFFT UP big time and forms to keep it on the DL. And, he said, "for Christsakes, DON'T PUT ON THE NET!!" I can honestly say that I kept my promise. I'm a rhinestone... COWBOY.

http://soundcloud.com/djjamesedward DJ James Edward

I'm surprised they didn't talk about the similarities between the Curls/ALL CAPS 12' cover and the back cover of that Madonna album...

http://theoknows.com Michael

No Funkaho no care

Soneerokz

That was a great cover...so simple, yet so affective. I remember the first time I saw it, I told myself 'I have to get this album!'.

http://www.distrakt.com/ DISTRAKT

Never a magician if I ever tricked em "Oh shit!" Another Gas Face victim